


BE KIND REWIND

by creepymura



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Blockbuster AU, M/M, Not Actually Blockbuster, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2019-11-24 17:57:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18168338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creepymura/pseuds/creepymura
Summary: "Welcome to Nockfell Video, your local independent video store. Better prices than Blockbuster or your money back."It's 2005. Myspace is thriving, it's cool to be emo, and video stores are still a profitable business.Larry Johnson, college drop out and the best employee at Nockfell Video, lives a pretty regular, if boring life. But when he meets a blue-haired, white-faced boy with a love for horror movies and shitty metal, his life is suddenly plunged into chaos he's never faced before.





	1. Chapter 1

"Welcome to Nockfell Video, your local independent video store. Better prices than Blockbuster or your money back. What can I do for you today, sir-slash-madam?"

A young man in an unflattering red and white uniform stood behind the checkout desk of the empty video store.  

His bored gaze was trained down to a hard-rock music magazine in his hands, matching the loud music that played over the speakers in the store, so one could only assume it was from his own supply. Barely acknowledging the customer on the other side of the desk, other than a slightly arched brow in their direction and an empty ‘customer-friendly’ company line that was so ingrained into his daily dialogue at the store that he didn't even have to think about saying it anymore.

His name tag read 'Larry' in spiky black marker, with the same marker aggressively crossing out a 'Happy to help!' claim. His ‘happy to help’ days were over before they even began.

"I wanna rent something."

"Well, you're in the right place then, dude." Larry deadpanned, flicking a page of his magazine, without even a glance towards the customer. When they didn’t move from his vision, he raised deep brown eyes to stare at them over the top of the magazine, his thick, dark brows furrowed in an almost challenging irritation.

"Got any recommendations for me?"

As much as he hated having to actually do work in the store, especially when the work included communication with customers, the question seemed to intrigue Larry, or at the very least, it was enough to distract him from whatever he was reading. With a quizzical look in his eye, he lowered his magazine and, with two hands on his side of the counter, leaned closer to the customer.

"Now, that depends." He said. "Are you going to take my recommendation seriously, or just grab whatever looks cool from the new releases shelf? Cus I’d be happy to direct you over there instead of taking up my time that could be used helping someone who actually wants it.” Larry wore a face of intense seriousness as he spoke, despite the absence of any other people in the store, which he and the customer knew.

The customer said nothing. They didn’t even blink at him.

“Seriously.” He continued. “Because you don’t even wanna KNOW how many times I’ve suggested absolute gold! Like, real good fucking movies, dude! And people have just blown me off and picked up like…” He paused to think of the worst movie he’d sold that week, pushing a hand into his long brown hair with a thoughtful roll of his eyes. “Fuckin’ Bad Boys II or some shit!” Larry leaned back with a huffed laugh that might have been attractive had it not been done with frustration. “Like, why even ask me for recommendations when you already know what you want, right?”

The customer continued to say nothing. They were quickly becoming acutely aware of just how much the young man gestured as he spoke. Like the exchange was a theatrical event.

Larry frowned.

“Do you wanna rent Bad Boys II?”

“Is it good?” The customer asked with a weak shrug.

“Is it...no, it’s not fucking good, dude.” Larry nearly shouted, standing up straight and gripping a fist full of his hair in an effort to try and mellow his anger and outrage. “It’s garbage. Hot, steaming garbage that isn’t good enough for my three-year-old niece to shit on. That’s how fucking bad it is.”

The customer stared at Larry as he attempted to calm himself down, with an almost bored look, looking at the display of movies behind his head and glancing down at their watch as if they were timing him.

“Just you here today then?” They asked, after a moment of heavy silence, with a not so subtle frown on their face.

“Yes, sir, just me for the next four hours.” Larry replied with a long sigh, pinching the bridge of his long, beakish nose before going back to his magazine, telling the customer to leave him alone without words.

The customer just nodded to themselves and let out an ill-humoured hum before they decided to walk away from the counter and just browse the store themselves, probably and correctly reasoning that Larry’s recommendation wasn’t going to be of any sort of use to them.

They eventually came back to the counter ten minutes later with a copy of Bad Boys II.

Larry could feel his desire to keep working and stay alive diminish just a little more as he scanned the movie through the checkout and slid the DVD, wrapped in a cheap brown bag, and its receipt over to the customer with a dark look in his eyes. Not telling them to have a good day, not bothering to ask if they wanted a loyalty card, and not thinking to remind the customer of the store’s late return policy, hoping that maybe they wouldn’t return to the store and they’d keep their DVD so he wouldn’t have to rent it out again.

-

Autumn had come quickly this year.

But then again, it always seemed to in Nockfell.

Sometimes it felt like the town was suspended in perpetual autumn.

Orange, yellow and red leaves always tumbling to the ground, needing to be constantly swept up and away from crowded sidewalks and the front yards of the town’s suburbs. A consistent chill to the air and full grey clouds in the sky that made people want to stay indoors. The sun setting in the sky and the day fading into the night just when it felt like it was beginning. And yet, autumn seemed to bring about an out of character energy to the normally sleepy town that only seemed to intensify around this time of year.

Everything about Nockfell seemed to come alive at this time of year, despite some of the populous feeling as dead as the leaves being swept on the ground.

As a proud member of said populous, Larry Johnson stared across the street from the steps of the video store, rolling a burning cigarette between his fingers, and casually smoking from it as he watched the other stores set up elaborate Halloween displays for their shop windows. Complete with tacky cotton cobwebs, plastic creepy crawlies and paper pumpkin cutouts, every one of them somehow looked different, and yet merged into a blur of orange and black at the same time.

It was still a few days until October properly started, but some of the stores in the centre of town clearly wanted to get an early start on offers and deals organized especially for the Halloween season.

It certainly helped that Nockfell itself was a somewhat popular east-coast Halloween destination, thanks to the town’s seedy past that put a bad taste on Larry's tongue when he thought about it, and the inevitable wave of out of town tourists due to arrive in the coming weeks would probably eat spooky shit up and guarantee good business for the month.

No wonder the town was so eager to be prepared.

Had Larry been a more productive employee of “Nockfell’s only independent video store” (hey, you can’t argue with a sign, right?), he probably would have followed the example of the other stores and started on some kind of display himself. Especially since he’d already had a few eager customers in the store renting an armful of horror movies for the season. And he did so happen to have a “real fucking good taste” in horror movies, in his own words, so he could have probably made a pretty sick display. Could have even put his half of an art school degree to use.

But he wasn’t a productive employee. So he wasn’t going to make a display unless someone told him to, and even then, he’d complain about it the whole time.

He was only really considered a good employee because he worked more hours than anyone in the store and therefore had more sales on his record, and was quick to cover when the others guys needed time off for school work. Somehow that was enough to make him “reliable” in corporate terms.

Being a college drop out had very few perks, but an abundance of free time was one of them.

“Yo, Larry. Todd’s asking for you.”

Though clearly, his abundance of free time didn’t apply to his smoke breaks.

Larry rolled his eyes with a short huff of frustration, crushing the still-burning cigarette under the sole of his poorly laced combat boot and getting up from his step. He rolled out his aching shoulders and turned his head to look over one of them, a characteristic and inquisitive brow arched at his co-worker.

"Is it so important that it has to disturb my only smoke break for the next two hours?"

"Yeah, right. Like you're not gonna have another one the next time a customer pisses you off."

Larry smirked, despite the not so subtle jab, and shouldered his way past his co-worker and into the empty video store, stopping to grab a Pepsi from the tacky display of snack foods and soda cans, and leant against the counter. Forever dedicated to giving off an attitude of just how much he didn't care over anything else. If only he got paid for that effort.

"See, that's why I like you, Neil." He started, cracking open the can and taking a quick swig from it, swishing it around his mouth to get rid of the smokey taste left on his tongue left from the cigarette. "You get me."

Neil, the boyfriend of aforementioned Todd and a whole two years younger than Larry which effectively made him a baby, beamed happily at the compliment. The guy was easy to please, which was another thing Larry liked about him.

The two had finished their college classes for the day and had come down to cover their respective afternoon shifts, in anticipation of a busy Friday night rental rush that came every weekend. However, for now, the store was empty and Larry had already done his restocks for the day, so he couldn't imagine what Todd might have wanted him.

"Did Todd mention what he needed me for?" Larry asked.

"Not really, just asked where you were." Neil replied with a weak shrug, picking up a box of returned DVDs and moving from behind the counter to find their rightful places amongst their stock. "Oh, he did say something about talking with Red on the phone earlier though. Maybe it's to do with that."

Larry let out a long, loud and over-exaggerated groan at the mention of their boss, which made Neil laugh.

Red, no first or last name, he was like Cher, was the owner of the video store and largely maintained the business, along with many others in the town, from an office in central New York. At least that was the address on all of Larry's paychecks. The guy was elusive,  mysterious and probably richer than God but still paid the teens and young adults he hired minimum wage for whatever reason, which might not have been a problem if he wasn't a gigantic prick at the same time. Consistently pushing all three boys to their limits and not taking any excuse if they didn't meet the totally unrealistic sales expectations he gave them every month, the only plus side to working for him was how he never came in to check on them and his total indifference to the business itself.

Which made the fact that he was calling up in the first place more than a little worrying.

"Guess I should find out what he wants then." Larry frowned, before moving through the cramped store, fixing a display or two of DVDs on his way, and towards the employee lounge/back room.

The back room was about as big as a broom closet, so small that Larry could touch two sides of the room with outstretched arms. Smaller still with a desk and an ancient computer, that overheated constantly and made the room that much more uncomfortable to be in, taking up most of the space. And though they had tried to make it as homely as possible, with movie posters on the walls, coloured fairy lights strung up around the extra junk food stock shelves and a couple of bean bag chairs shoved in the corner, it was still a barely bearable space to be in.

Todd, as the resident geek and “store manager” though he didn’t get paid any more than Larry did, spent most of his time in the back room, reordering stock, working through their sales for the month and organizing the work rotas, all the shit that Red wasn’t going to do and that Larry couldn’t understand. His most recent endeavour was setting up a new email reminder service if customers were late returning their rentals. It was impressive, at least it impressed Larry, but it did mean the guy spent even more time in the cramped space by himself.

So it was no surprise to see him hunched over the computer, endlessly typing away, the too-bright screen reflected in his round glasses. Larry thought he was simultaneously the hardest worker he’d seen and the biggest sucker he’d seen.

“Hey, Todd-rick. Brought you a soda for your troubles.” Larry said brightly, crossing the space and putting his mostly full can down on Todd’s desk.

“Thank you, Larry.” Todd swivelled in the office chair, turning towards Larry with a worn out smile. He took the can and gave it a quick sip, raising a hand to take off his glasses and rub at his tired eyes.

Poor guy.

“Dude, you look exhausted.” Larry frowned, leaning against the desk, hands shoved into his pockets. “You can take a day off if you need to, ya know. Me and Neil would be happy to cover for you.”

“No no, I’m fine.” Todd insisted, trying to make his smile a little less tired looking. “I’ll be finished with all this coding soon, and I’ll be back to my regular self, I assure you.” He took another long sip from the can, tired eyes squeezed together, and probably appreciating the sudden sugar rush that the soda was giving him before he set it down and put his glasses back on. “So. Did Neil tell you Red called me earlier?”

“Yessssssss.” Larry drawled, words turning into an equally long groan, which made Todd smile. “What does he want and do I still have a job here?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Todd laughed with a little shake of his head that made his orange curls bob. “Red knows the store would probably collapse without you.”

“Well, thank you for the little ego boost there, man.” Larry replied with a small grin and a little shrug. “So what is it then? He calling just to talk about how good I am? Cus while I’d have to ask who this new guy is and what he did with my boss, I’d happily welcome a pay rise and would even look the other way if murder was somehow involved.”

“He wants us to hire someone new.” Todd said bluntly, which made the smile on Larry’s face drop, just a little.

“Oh. Right. Okay.” Larry said, his voice shifting into more a mumble as he crossed his arms. “He, er, mention why he wants us to do that, exactly?”

“He rationalized it to being that you worked too many hours alone.” Todd continued, turning back to his computer, opening the store’s employee rota of the week on the monitor and gesturing to it. “See, the yellow blocks are mine, green are Neil’s and the red ones are yours.”

“That’s a fuck load of a lot of red blocks.”

“Precisely. And most of that time is you working alone. I can actually understand Red’s point when looking at our weekly schedule. I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned it before.”

“I mean, it’s not a problem to me!” Larry insisted, his slouched body suddenly alert. “And, like, I’ve never complained about working more hours than you guys, have I?” Larry started to pace across the stretch of the back room, worriedly biting at his nails and toying with his hair. “Oh, shit, does this mean Red’s gonna cut my hours? Cus you know I have to pick up all those hours to pay rent, dude, I can’t afford to not work here full time.”

“I don’t believe so.” Todd assured. “He just wanted more than one person in the store when Neil and I aren’t around. I mean, think about it.” He turned in his chair again. “How many times have you had to put out stock AND serve a customer? Or clean for the evening AND make sure the float for the morning is correct?”

Larry said nothing, though he continued to pace, clearly not settled by Todd’s argument.

“You could get more done and improve your sales record. This is your chance to actually impress Red. Or just make the workload on your back a little lighter.” Todd crossed his arms, sitting forward in his seat. “You really should see this opportunity as a positive.”

“I’m positive that Red just wants to replace me.” Larry frowned, collapsing into one of the bean bag chairs, his gangled frame taking up most of the space of the back room, still biting his nails.

Todd just rolled his eyes subtly at the other man’s pointless anxieties and turned back to typing his programming into the computer, occasionally reaching over to swig from the soda can, which Larry now regretted giving to him.

“I’ll print out a sign for the window soon, and I expect you to hang it up _today._ ” Todd said, glancing over at Larry’s moping frame from the corner of his eye. “Try to be nice if anyone asks about it.”

“I don’t have to be nice to someone who could take my job!”

“You’re nice to me, aren’t you?”

“Don’t joke about that, man.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i haven't published anything in like six months but i've just gotten a new job working at a video store and i feel like all of my 2005 dreams of working in a blockbuster have come true. so naturally i wanted to write a video store AU for my fave 2005 grungy emo kids and. here i am doing that i guess. will try to update semi-regularly but i'm doing an MA and i have a job so like. who knows dude
> 
> kudos, comment, bookmark, all the fun stuff.
> 
> iloveyousallyface.tumblr.com


	2. Chapter 2

The inevitable rush of Friday late night rentals came and went without any major catastrophes, and an empty store at the end of the night meant the three boys could spend the last few hours of their respective shifts shooting the shit and finishing up on the mandatory nightly duties that they had neglected because of the rush.

Neil sat on the counter, a university notebook in his lap, finishing up on some school work like the responsible student he was, as Larry worked through a large stack of returned DVDs, scanning them through the system and relabelling them with the store's return policy sticker where appropriate.

Mindless and menial work, but necessary, and he'd get shit if he didn't do it.

The two of them threw chit-chat and banter back and forth while Todd worked, naturally, in the backroom, double-checking the ins-and-outs of the week and organizing the rota for the following Monday. The store radio played softly behind their conversation, a college radio station that specialised in indie and alternative songs that they could all agree on.

"Did Todd tell ya we have to get a new guy in?" Larry said, peeling off a return sticker from the roll and planting it in the corner of a DVD box, slinging it onto the pile once it was relabelled.

"Mmhmm." Neil mumbled with a nod, quickly writing down a scrawled note on the already busy page, dark brown eyes barely glancing up at his co-worker as he worked. "Have you put up the sign he printed yet, or are you hoping he'll just forget about it? Cus I don't think that's gonna work out well for you, man."

"Hey, call me an optimist," Larry replied with a little smirk, pierced tongue between his teeth. "And chill, I put it up already. Even though I think it's stupid. Never had a problem with running this place by myself."

"Hey, no-one has a problem with you, Larry. They just wanna get rid of some of your responsibility, that's all. Plus it's not like you to avoid something that'll make your job easier." Neil chuckled lightly, dropping his notebook back into his lap and stretching his body out with a groan. The kid must have been getting tired since he was giving up on his school work, and Larry could relate.

"Whatever, dude, I'm a hard worker when I wanna be." Larry rolled his eyes at the subtle dig as he pushed the pile of DVDs to the end of the counter. "I think Red just wants a reason to not promote me." Leaning back against the display wall, he rubbed his eyes, trying to suppress a yawn.

He'd been in the store since half nine that morning, and he was still on the clock until midnight (why they stayed open until midnight on Fridays, he would never know) since he had agreed to cover the entire shift for some insane reason. He had Todd and Neil to distract him a little now, which did make the time pass by much quicker, but the long hours on his feet still took a lot out of him, no matter how many times he did it.

At least his paycheck at the end of the month was going to be a little sweeter. Even though he was suffering for it now.

"Fuck me, I'm beat." Larry drawled, the long yawn eventually slipping out from his lips. He pushed a hand into his hair and scratched at his head, blinking heavy eyes sleepily. "You mind if I put something a little heavier on? Might perk me up a little."

"Go for it." Neil said with a shrug of his shoulders as Larry switched off the radio on their sound system and started to sift through his large selection of heavy metal and old grunge CDs. Neil subtly looked around the empty store and hopped off the counter, with another stretch of his unwieldy limbs. "I might take some sodas in the back then, if you don't need me for anything."

"Sure thing, dude. I'll call ya if I need ya." Larry said without looking back at him, still scanning through his collection. "Leave one out for me though, I probably need all the sugar I can get right now."

Neil gave him a quick thumbs up, taking three cans of overly caffeinated and sugary soda from the display fridge, leaving one on the counter for Larry, and taking the other two into the backroom for himself and Todd. He was a considerate boyfriend and the two of them were pretty cute as a couple and so darn happy together that Larry attempted to suppress his jealousy as a result of his own involuntary single-dom as he picked out a classic Sanity Falls album from his collection.

Larry grinned to himself involuntarily as he opened the case. Neither Todd or Neil particularly liked his taste in music, so when he had the store to himself, he took every opportunity to listen to as much heavy metal as possible, no matter how much his customers might have complained about it.

Sliding the CD into the store's sound system and tapping away at the volume controls, he couldn't help the little surge of energy that ripped through him from hearing the opening riff of "Singular", his favourite song on the album. When the growling vocals and heavy drums and guitars started up, he resisted every urge he had to just rock out to the song for the next three and a half minutes, and instead picked up his pile of resorted and relabelled DVDs and started to restock the shelves, a new pep in his step thanks to his soundtrack choice.

He got so engrossed in his restocking, zoning out from the repetitive motion and the familiar sounds of his favourite band, that he didn't hear the obnoxious *BEEP-BOOP* of the door,

As he busied himself with putting out multiple copies of the newest shitty horror movies on the lower shelves of the new releases section, he noticed a shifting body in the aisle of DVDs opposite him and realized that he wasn’t alone in the front of the store. Heavy platform boots stalling for a few moments before moving to another section.

Probably someone looking for some help. Larry figured the restock could wait a few minutes while he helped out a clueless customer, and that way he’d get his store empty much faster and get to leave without any drawn out interactions.

When he walked to the next aisle, however, he wasn’t prepared to be shocked stiff by the person standing in the A-G horror section of Nockfell Video.

Whoever they were, they were dressed head to toe in black, and a shock of bright blue hair in large, spiky twin pigtails and a white and pink face mask were the only things that broke up the monotonous hue of their outfit.

Aforementioned platform boots, riddled with heavy silver buckles, reached to about their mid-calf level, and thick, woollen tights took up the space between calf and kneecap where a plain pleated skirt sat. Long and almost modest, in a conservative way, the skirt was cinched in tight with a leather belt at their absurdly skinny waistline. On top and tucked into the skirt, they wore a short sleeved shirt that was buttoned all the way up to their chin, and their torso was adorned with shining, silver jewellery and a singular inverted cross on a long black cord that hung down their chest. A heavy fleece jacket was balanced, artfully, around their elbows as they scanned through the small selection of horror movies the store had to offer, and a plain looking backpack was resting near their feet as they searched determinedly.

Larry felt his mouth go dry as he kept staring at the attractive stranger, quickly stuffing his hands into his pockets to stop himself from nervously fiddling with his fingers.

He was never that good at talking to people that he found attractive.

Even as a kid, he'd go red and nervous just thinking about talking to someone he found vaguely cute, and that pattern continued throughout high school and well into adulthood. As a result of this anxiety, most of his romantic and sexual experiences had been at the hands of friends who wanted to experiment, no obligation of dating afterwards, just casual fun. Games of spin the bottle, never have I ever, seven minutes in heaven were frequent at parties and sleepovers. And while he'd certainly had plenty of those experiences, he hadn't dated anyone solidly for all of his twenty-three years of being alive.

And he didn't really realize that he had a problem with it until he started spending a lot of time with Todd and Neil, and grew to be jealous of the obvious love they had for each other.

Was it bad to be jealous of them? Was it bad to want what they had? Larry didn't think so, but he still felt guilty about it sometimes when the two were being particularly romantic towards one another.

But this wasn't someone he was going to date, or even ask about dating. They were just a confused customer who was looking for a horror movie, right? And he wouldn't be doing his job if he just left them alone, and retreated to the back room to curse himself and his inability to talk to people he found hot.

No, he'd have to talk to them.

He quietly psyched himself up as he took slow steps towards the customer, hands still stuffed into his pockets though, just in case.

"Is there anything I can help you with today, ma'am?" Larry managed to ask, a polite tone to his voice that he normally never used with customers.

The customer looked over at him, and suddenly Larry was glad his shaking hands were hidden.

"Oh, I'm a guy actually." The customer replied calmly, even kindly, in a low, masculine voice.

"Oh, shit.” Larry could feel his face burning with embarrassment and the hands deep in his pockets started to feel uncomfortably sweaty. “I'm so SO sorry, man. I just sort of assumed..." He explained, trying to subtly wipe the gross feeling on his hands on his uniform, his tongue suddenly feeling all too heavy in his skull. "The hair and the clothes and-...fuck, I'm so sorry."

"No worries, dude." The customer mercifully interrupted his frantic stream of apologies and explanations, an amused chuckle slipping between his words, a smile reaching his bright blue eyes shadowed underneath the white plastic. "Happens all the time."

Spidery fingers with black nail polish at every short fingernail subtly played with blue pigtails, a slight cock to his head and the smile in his eyes never fading, and Larry had never been more thankful for his bisexuality then at that moment.

Sure, the customer had been pretty cute, if spooky looking, when Larry thought they were a girl, but now he knew that they were a guy? He felt even more attracted to them.

But it wasn't like he was going to say that out loud. Though his face was burning bright red, and his exposed hands were shaking enough that his sudden nervousness and the blatant attraction was probably pretty obvious to them...him. But if it was obvious, the customer didn't say anything. Just stood in somewhat comfortable silence with him, the hidden smile never leaving his eyes as he twirled blue hair around his spidery fingers.

"So.” He coughed lightly to clear a tickle in his throat. “I-Is there, er, anything I can help you with anyway?" Larry said with a small if slightly nervous grin.

"Oh yeah, heh.” Larry must have jolted them out of a train of thought. “Actually, I'm looking for a movie." The customer replied, his fingers dropping from his pigtails. "I watched it years ago, so I can't remember the name of it, sorry." His white and pink mask was expressionless, but the shift in his tone and the subtle wrinkle in his eyes seemed sincerely apologetic.

"Well, I wouldn't work here if I didn't know about movies." Larry's grin grew a little, as he put his hands on his hips proudly, any nervous energy attempted to be replaced with a sure certainty, which made the customer chuckle, fingers curling at the hem of his skirt. "Let me see if I know it."

"I'd be pretty impressed." The unseen smile to the customer's voice made Larry's heart throb even more in his chest. "Alright, let me think.” One hand raised to his plastic lips, which he tapped thoughtfully, in another gesture that Larry found absurdly cute. “It's a German horror movie, maybe late eighties-"

"My favourite era and subgenre." Larry interrupted, gesturing for the customer to follow him to the store's tiny world cinema section, which he did, still deep in thought.

"Yeah, and it, like, tells two stories simultaneously of these guys in a hospital."

"Right, right."

"One's a reporter trying to get a story," The customer continued, holding up a finger. "And the second one," A second finger went up. Larry noticed now that his hands were covered with bandages and bandaids, and he couldn’t help but wonder what had caused them. "Worked for this shady company who were doing human experiments and stuff."

"Okaaaay..." Larry drawled slowly, quickly sifting through the collection of DVDs. He already had a vague idea of what he was looking for.

"It's, like, super gory and I think one of the guys almost gets his dick cut off and you totally see all of it, full frontal and everything." The customer snickered. "Really cute too, looked like a long-haired Aryan twink. I think the actor used to do porn or something."

"Ah. Got it." Larry grinned triumphantly and pulled out an old looking DVD, the cover depicting said Aryan twink and a hunky looking River Phoenix clone, back to back, with numerous badly made up monsters grabbing out for them. It looked a little more like a particularly weird porno than a horror movie. "Überleben. The twink you were talking about was, in fact, a porn star. The guy who directed it fell in love with him on set of an adult film and made the movie just for him to star in."

“Oh my god, you’re the fucking best, dude!” The customer said excitedly, eyes wide with delight, taking the DVD from Larry’s hands and turning it to quickly look at the summary on the back. “Yeah, this is exactly it! Holy shit, it looks as bad as I remember too.” He clasped it to his chest, and Larry couldn’t help but wish he could see the smile on the guy’s face.

“I mean, for an eighties German horror movie, done by a gay director outside of the studio system with a porn star as the lead, it could have been way worse.” Larry replied with a small shrug, trying to hide how much he was beaming at the praise. “But yeah, pretty bad movie.”

“I actually didn’t know that about the director being gay.” The customer continued, an audible smile to their voice as they followed Larry to the checkout desk. “Makes it sorta romantic actually.”

“Oh, totally.” Larry replied with a matching smile. “It was like a love letter to the guy in the movie. Part of the reason he survives and the other lead doesn’t.” He took the DVD and scanned it through the system. No-one had rented it in years. He was sort of glad that someone else would finally appreciate it again.

“Does make it weird that the director put in a scene of a murderer fondling his boyfriend’s junk though.”

“Oh dude, that movie was one hundred percent a sex thing between the two of them.”

The comment made the customer snort softly with amusement, and Larry couldn't help but feel a pang of affection right at his core. It was probably bad to develop feelings for strangers in video stores at ten in the evening, but Larry was always one to make bad decisions.

"Oh, how much do I owe you then?" The customer asked, jolting Larry out of his lovesick daydream, fumbling in his backpack for a wallet, presumably.

"Five dollars for the weekend. If you have a membership card, though, you get to keep it for two extra nights, free of charge." Larry replied brightly. Normally, Larry couldn't be bothered to recite the store policy or push the membership offer, since he wasn't one to try and attract customers back to the store that often. But, for some real, he wanted this particular customer to come back.

"Well, I just moved here, so." The customer shrugged, taking out an old looking leather wallet and sifting through it for a bill. "No membership yet."

Yet.

"Where did you move from?" Larry asked curiously, in an attempt to make a casual conversation, taking the five dollar bill that the customer produced.

"New Jersey. Dad wanted a change so he sort of just. Uprooted us." The customer took the DVD and put it in his bag. "Plus, it'll be easier for me to go to school in the spring semester. Can't really fault him on that choice, I guess."

"Had the chance to explore Nockfell yet?"

"Haha, no." The smile reached his eyes again. "Just been unpacking for the last week. Tonight has basically been the first time I've gotten out of the house."

"And you chose to come here." Larry grinned, leaning against his counter. "Excellent choice, I must say."

"I think my dad will be pretty happy I socialised." There was a humorous tone to the customer's voice as he zipped his backpack shut and slung it onto his shoulders. "Even if he doesn't approve of my movie choice."

"Oh yeah, Nockfell Video is totally the number one social spot of this town." Larry chuckled.

"It is for me, man." The customer insisted. "Good music, good company, good movies." Nodding to the display of sodas and sweets to the side of him. "All the junk food you could eat. What else do you need?"

Good company. Larry couldn't help but beam a little at that comment.

"Well, I'll have to get more German horror movies in for our new regular then." He said, unable to fight just how much his face was burning.

"The shittier the better."

The customer started to leave the store, and every part of Larry ached to say more. To ask him his name, to ask him to stay, to offer their backroom so maybe they could watch the movie together. It was as if every one of those anxieties that had stopped him from speaking in the past had been squashed, and now he was bubbling with a desire to truly connect with someone he had just met.

But he could take it slow. Act like a normal person, for once.

"I-I'm Larry, by the way." Larry quickly blurted out, his face burning even more. "If you ever wanna just talk about movies or something, just come down cus, like." He interrupted himself to laugh at his expense. "I'm always here. If you wanna...just. Talk." A hand buried into his hair. "Maybe I could even...show you around Nockfell? If you wanted?

The customer turned his head slightly, a questioning cock to their expression as they listened to Larry speak, and had it been anyone else receiving it, the gaze might have been creepy or, at the very least, unnerving. The blank white face, the frozen look, it was almost expressionless.

But all Larry could see were those sparkling, baby blue eyes that beamed with a true kind of happiness that people often couldn't see, only glittering more and more as he listened to his rambling. One tiny gesture that seemed to be more emotive than that of anyone he had seen before, and it meant more to him than anything else could have. It was truthful and genuine.

It didn't matter if he couldn't see the smile, he could feel it.

"I'll have to take you up on that, Larry." He said with a pleased tone to his voice. "I'm Sal. My friends call me Sally Face."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> larry is a big bi mess and i love him for it. also sal is here! we love sal!
> 
> i finished a 5k essay this week and rewarded myself with writing this. i've gotten some pretty positive responses to this fic and i'm so happy people are as into this dumb video store au as i am, so thank you everyone who's commented so far! your words fuel my desire to write x also if anyone guesses what i'm referencing with the movie sal's looking for, i owe you my kidney 
> 
> like, bookmark, comment and such! i think i'm gonna keep trying to update this weekly. 
> 
> iloveyousallyface.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

It's a Monday night, two minutes before closing time, when Sal returned to the store.

After Larry's initial meeting with the enigmatic, blue-haired and white-masked Sally Face, a comfortable routine between the two of them began to form over the next few weeks of October.

Sal would come into the store and borrow a horror movie every Friday night, barely minutes before the store closed (the first night would be the last time he was seen before eleven pm), his choice generally being old, foreign and unnecessarily obscure but occasionally a new release or two to break up his own self-imposed monotony (though he didn't think too highly of House of Wax). And he'd return it, promptly, the following Monday night, once again, minutes before closing, with plenty of entertaining stories to tell about the reactions he got to it, either from his dad or from lesser-spoken-about friends and neighbours that lived in his apartment block.

Tonight’s return was an early nineties Swedish splatter porn/zombie movie that Larry had recommended to him after scouring international horror forums late at night for potential films Sal might be interested in. And it seemed that his research had paid off too, since Sal had loved it and happily gushed over how much he loved it when he returned it.

They must have been talking through the movie, discussing certain scenes and characters that they both liked, for the last half an hour, well past the closing time of the store, but Larry was honestly glad that Sal liked something he recommended so much. Was even more glad that conversation between the two of them seemed to flow so naturally. Like they had been friends for years, rather than being quasi-strangers.

Even though he couldn't properly close the store with Sal still in there, Larry didn't even mind about being kept at work past the end of his shift. In fact, he sort of liked that Sal was so caught up in chatting with him, liked that he was comfortable enough to keep talking while Larry did some of the nightly closing up duties, following him around the shop as Larry put away DVDs and organized their stock rotation, an untouched cherry cola that Larry had offered to him in one hand, wildly gesturing his enthusiasm and excitement with the other.

It was friendly, fun, and honestly the most healthy social interaction Larry had had for a while.

Even if they were essentially talking about splatter porn.

"And oh my god, dude, that decapitation scene in the graveyard kicked ass!" Sal exclaimed as Larry stocked the "romance" section with new releases that had been returned throughout the day. Sal wore his blue hair in a high messy bun tonight, coordinated with a baggy Nirvana sweatshirt and a pair of ripped up black jeans and army boots, and the bun bobbed from side to side every time he made a particularly wild exclamation. He looked RIDICULOUSLY cute. "I seriously thought my dad was gonna throw up!"

"It was fucking gnarly, right?" Larry replied with a crooked grin, quickly being infected by Sal’s excitement. "I swear on my life, man, that budget went almost exclusively to the fake blood department."

"Yeah, and the rest of it went to replacing the lead's clothes after every take." Sal continued, an unseen matching grin to his voice. "I counted, like, ten different outfit changes in the high school scenes alone! Seriously, what was up with those zombies and wanting to get everyone naked all the time? I thought it was gonna turn into a porno halfway through."

"Hey, those zombies had good taste, dude." Larry shrugged as he stacked up copies of a new rom-com he didn’t recognize. "Fredrick Andersson was hot as hell in that movie. If I was a zombie, I’d wanna get him naked too."

Sal let out an abrupt laugh, a subtly masculine sound that was undercut by an utterly endearing and genuine snort of amusement that Larry couldn’t help but smile at.

“Nah, he was too macho. I thought the nerdy one with the shitty bangs was cuter.” Sal continued, finally cracking open the soda can. “Or the goth girl who ripped out the evil professor's heart. That was so sick.”

“For real.” Larry nodded in agreement, moving onto the “drama” section of his restock. “Her death scene, badass as it was, was so undeserved. She should have been the final girl, absolutely.”

As Larry spoke, Sal paused for a moment, glancing at his now open can, his eyes subtly crinkled in thought under his mask.

“Oh, dude, sorry but do you have any straws or anything? I was meant to ask before but I guess I got distracted, heh.” He asked, looking up at Larry again. “Just, ya know.” He tapped a painted fingernail against the hard plastic of his mask. “Plastic face and all.”

“Oh shit, man.” Larry grimaced a little and shook his head. “We don’t, sorry.”

“It’s chill.” Sal replied, though he sounded a little dejected. “Just drinking without one is kind of a bitch.” He paused again, and, in a gesture that Larry could tell was uncomfortable, moved a hand back to unbuckle his mask. “I mean, I guess I could-”

"Well." Larry started, interrupting Sal and stopping his stacking for a moment, winding a curling strand of his hair around his index finger as he thought. "Technically I've been off work for the last twenty minutes, so I could just leave.” He stopped. “Do you wanna split, and I could grab you a proper soda or a slurpee from a gas station or something?"

"Oh, jeez, Larry." Sal replied, his eyes cast downwards shyly as he dropped his hand back to his side. "You don't have to do that."

"No, no, I want to." Larry insisted, moving across the store and putting his stock down on the counter. He would be the first one in the store tomorrow morning anyway, so he could just finish his restock then. Screw you, future Larry, present Larry has a cute boy to impress. "Besides, I haven't gotten the chance to show you around Nockfell yet, and you deserve to see more of the town then just this place." He turned back to Sal with a little grin. "My treat, yeah?"

Sal paused for a moment, spindly and band-aid covered fingers nervously playing with the sleeve of his baggy sweatshirt, big blue eyes blinking slowly at the other man, looking lost in thought.

Larry wished, albeit selfishly, that he could see Sal’s face in that moment. Just for a second, just so that he could have a vague idea of what he might have been thinking. If he was happy, positive, uncomfortable, anxious. Larry was never really that good at reading people, and Sal proved to be especially difficult with his lack of facial expressions sometimes. Thank god his body language was so expressive, or Larry would have been totally lost. And he really didn’t want to misunderstand Sal or potentially make him uncomfortable. He wanted the exact opposite.

But Sal eventually nodded, after some anxiety-inducing seconds, and his fretting fingers relaxed.

"Yeah, okay.” He said, a smile to his voice. “Sounds good."

"Awesome." Larry replied, his grin spreading and his cheeks pleasantly warm with affection. "Let me lock up then.”

-

Larry managed to close up and lock the store in record-breaking time while Sal waited for him on the sidewalk outside. Reading the back of a new DVD that Larry had recommended to him and smoking a pre-rolled cigarette, his mask perched on the top of his head while Larry was occupied.

Though it quickly came down as soon as he was finished.

The mid-October was starting to get a little chilly, especially this late at night, and Larry thought, for just a moment, about offering his red hooded jacket to Sal as he locked up the store with his personal set of keys, but decided otherwise for a reason he couldn't quite pinpoint himself. Besides, Sal was wearing a sweatshirt of his own and probably wasn't as susceptible to the cold as Larry was.

Or at least those were the reasons he told himself.

Larry's favourite gas station, because he was just that kind of trashy, was a few miles away from the video store, but the absence of traffic and Larry's general disdain and ignorance for any kind of road safety laws meant they got there in no time at all. Plus his car, that he affectionately called Roadkill ("since I found her on the side of the road"), could have some pretty good speed to her ancient and busted engine when she was feeling generous. And thank the gods, she was feeling it tonight.

Someone on the other side must have been rooting for Larry tonight and wanted him to succeed at flirting with Sal through the means of gas station sodas and snacks.

"Welcome to Nockfell's own Snappy Snack Shack." Larry said with a smile, pushing the door open for Sal and stepping into the harsh, fluorescent lighting of the gas station store behind him. "The only place in town where you can get diabetes AND heart disease for less than five bucks a meal."

“I wouldn’t expect anything less." Sal replied with an audible smile under his mask, following Larry towards a self-service drink and slurpee machine that monotonously hummed underneath the low, heavy rock that played over the store's speakers. Larry was glad that his good taste in music seemed to be infecting the town. Or at least the places where his friends worked.

"Alright, so." Larry started, speaking like a professional. "I'm partial to a blue slurpee, personally." A hand rested on his hip while the other gestured theatrically as he spoke, first resting on his chest, before doing a little absurd gesture that Sal chuckled at. "However, I can vouch for cherry and coke too, if that's what you're into. "

"What if you mixed the two together?" Sal offered with a tip of his head, taking a cup from the stand.

"That actually might be the most genius thing I've ever heard." Larry replied, his voice deadpan and so gravely serious that it made Sal let out an absurdly cute little laugh. "Make that two. I wanna see if this shit works."

"Dude, it totally does, I swear." Sal insisted, taking another cup from the stand and starting to fill them up with bright red cherry slurpee. "I used to do this all the time back in Jersey. For real, I, like, got the employees there drinking this shit because it worked so well."

"I'll believe it when I taste it." Larry said with a smirk, perusing a display of cheap and unhealthy snack foods beside the machine, inspecting them closely, as if it mattered, before taking three bags of the store's own brand 'cheese explosion' tortilla chips and shoving them under his arm. "You want anything else while we're here? I'm basically buying my dinner, so I'm chill with whatever you wanna get."

"Oh, you're buying me dinner, huh? Is this a date?" Sal replied, and Larry felt his cheeks flush a furious beet red.

"No!" He said quickly. "I-I mean...if I did take you on a date...not like I would! Or anything! Um." One of the chips quickly fell to the floor and Larry promptly stepped on it, causing an actual cheese explosion of tortilla chips. "Which isn't to say that, like, you're unattractive or anything. I mean, I don't think you're attractive, at least IN THAT WAY! Yeah...b-but, um, I wouldn't just take you to a-a gas station, like, what kinda date would that be?" He forced out a little laugh as he tried to salvage the chip bag from the ground. "I'm not...not that cheap. Haha. Heh."

"Dude. I'm totally fucking with you." Sal laughed, not unkindly, as he filled the other half of the cups with cola slurpee. "'Sides, I'd totally go to a gas station for a date. I'm Jersey trash, remember."

"Oh. Right. Y-Yeah, that would be cool, I guess..." Larry mumbled, feeling his face burn even hotter.

Way to fuck up that interaction, you fucking nerd.

Without another word, lest he embarrass himself again, Larry moved across the store to the empty check out station, dumping the two bags and the one half destroyed bag of chips in the customer basket and trying to fight off his blushing as he picked out a couple of candy bars for the drive home. He'd have to get another carton of cigarettes while he was at it too.

"Ey, Chug-A-Lug!" He called over to the visible open back room after standing at the check out for more than a minute. "Stop jackin' off and come serve me, man!"

As soon as he was done speaking, a chubby, friendly-looking guy with bright green and bleach fried hair, crammed underneath a black cap, darted out of the back room. A wide grin spread on his face when he caught sight of Larry at the checkout and he leaned over the desk to give the video clerk a friendly fist bump.

"Duuude, was wondering when you were gonna come in. You're, like, an hour late on me, bro!"

"Yeah, got super caught up closing shop tonight. But hey, more overtime for me, I guess" Larry replied with his own grin, pulling at his wallet chain while Chug punched in the barcodes of the chips into his cash register and perused his wall for a box of cigarettes without Larry having to ask for them first.

"Wouldn't happen to do with Blue over there, would it?" Chug leaned in with a whisper and a nod over to Sal struggling to put the lids on their slurpees as he placed the cigarettes in Larry's basket. When Larry gave him an annoyed glare and a punch to the arm, he smiled. "God, you fuckin' homo."

"That's a hate crime, you shit-stain." Though Larry couldn't help but smile a little in spite of himself. Especially when he was, as Chug put it, a fucking homo. At least in this situation, he was.

Sal was quick to finish up and come over to the checkout with their drinks in hand, but Larry was quicker to hand the cash for his snacks and the slurpees over to Chug before Sal even had the chance to reach for his wallet. He had offered to pay for the drinks after all, and he liked to think of himself as somewhat of a gentleman, at least in flirtatious scenarios.

Even though this wasn't a date. Totally.

"Oh yeah, Chug, this is Sal by the way. My new favourite regular at the video store." Larry gestured to Sal with a flourish of hand gestures as he pocketed his new carton of cigarettes. "Sal, this is Chug. Old high school friend and the only reason I keep coming back to this shit hole."

"Pleasure to meet ya." Chug replied with a warm (for him, at least) smile, touching two thick fingers to his head and quirking them towards Sal. "You new in town then?"

"Yeah." Sal nodded with a polite tone to his voice. "Me and my dad moved down from Jersey a few weeks ago. Still getting used to everything but Larry's doing a good job at showing me the town."

"Oh really?" Chug asked with a slight raise of his eyebrows. " Has he gotten the chance to show you the old parish church yet? A real tourist hot spot 'round these parts."

"No?" Sal cocked his head to the side slightly, and when Larry shoved Chug with a skinny elbow and another harsh glare, his unseen confusion only seemed more evident. "Why, what's the special about it?"

"Oh, dude, it's totally nothing." Larry insisted, shoving his bag of chips and candy bars under one arm and taking his slurpee with his free hand. "I'll tell ya later, okay. Let's just head out, Chug's busy."

"But I-"

"Nah, he's right." Chug agreed with a nod that wasn't even remotely apologetic and Larry would be sure to send him a myriad of angry texts when he got home that night. "I'll catch ya later, Larry. Maybe see you around too, Sal?"

"Yeah, for sure." Sal replied with a little if slightly confused wave as he followed the hurrying Larry out of the gas station.

-

*SLUUUUUUURP*

"Dude, this slurpee is fucking good."

Both boys lay back on the hood of Larry's car that was now parked in the gas station parking lot. Staring up at the stars in the inky black sky and listening to the low rock music on the car stereo that played underneath them, undisturbed thanks to the quiet of the street opposite and Larry's knowledge that Chug wouldn't bother them for it.

"What did I tell ya, man. I got good taste in junk food."

Their bodies were bathed in the neon purples and blues of the station's street lights, and they lay there in mostly silence, the only sound shared between them being occasional sucks from their slurpee straws and the soft hum of the turning neon sign beside them. Normally, so much silence would have made Larry anxious and uncomfortable, and he would have babbled nonsense to fill the void in conversation, but for whatever reason, with Sal, there was no need to. He could lie there in total stillness and be totally comfortable with him.

That must have counted for something, he thought as he raised the slurpee cup to his lips again and took a long sip through his straw. Or maybe he has just misremembered a quote from a movie and applying it to real life again.

Whatever it was though, Larry couldn't help but smile when he looked over at Sal out the corner of his eye, the younger boy's mask raised just slightly so he could sip his slurpee through the straw. It wasn't enough for Larry to see the entirety of his face, but he could see something. Gnarled pink and white flash that curled slightly underneath his chin, a dark red scar that must have spanned up to his lips, only visible now that he was really looking at him.

He couldn't help but be enchanted by it, these hidden scars underneath the coloured lights, the fact he could only see it because he was allowed to be this close to Sal.

It was a privilege in a way.

They were basically strangers, a customer too into horror and a salesperson happy to indulge, and yet, he hadn't felt this close to someone in years - if ever. What was it about Sal that intrigued him so much? Why was he having such a hard time getting this mysterious blue-haired boy out of his head? And did he even want to?

Being this close to the younger boy was definitely making his slight infatuation a little worse though.

He shook his head a little to try and shake away those sudden thoughts and decided to turn his brain onto something else.

"Can I ask you sort of a personal question?" Larry asked, shifting his gaze from the night sky, the glittering stars and the gas station lights, and over to Sal.

"Sure." Sal replied, with a weak shrug.

"Why do you wear that mask?" Larry leaned with his elbow against the windscreen of the car, his hand supporting his cheek, fingers idly curling into his hair. "Like, don't get me wrong, it looks sick and everything, but-"

"It's a prosthetic." Sal interrupted, with a little chuckle to his words, sitting up to properly face Larry and resting his half finished, half melted slurpee in his lap. "My actual face is super fucked up and ugly looking, so I wear Michael Myers so people don't freak out about Freddy Krueger."

Larry smiled a little at Sal's well-referenced self-deprecation, though the idea of Sal thinking any part of himself was ugly made his heart ache in sympathy for the younger boy. He couldn't imagine Sal looking even remotely ugly, regardless of whatever he was hiding under the white and pink plastic. What little he had seen certainly wasn't ugly, at least in his eyes.

But he wasn't going to say that out loud. At least not yet.

"Does it bother you?" Larry continued.

"It used to. Especially when I was younger and people picked on me for it." Sal said, a little cock to his head, his hair bun bobbing cutely. "But I've had my prosthetic longer then I had my actual face at this point. I'm used to it by now."

Sal had an expectant look in his barely visible eyes, like he was waiting for Larry to push him further, ask more questions, maybe even request if he could see his face without the mask. But Larry had no desire for any of that knowledge without Sal willingly giving it, no matter how curious he might have been.

So Larry just smiled. Looking at Sal in the blue and purple light of the gas station, being allowed to be so close to him, that was more than enough.

"Well, whatever the reason, I still think it looks fucking sick."

Sal laughed, bright and truly genuine, and Larry's heart started to ache again. Almost painfully.

"Thanks, man." Sal said, a smile in his voice and the ever-endearing crinkle to his bright blue eyes.

"No, I mean it." Larry insisted, sitting up a little himself, leaning closer to Sal. "You look awesome, like, all the time, dude. Like, your clothes and stuff? I can barely summon the energy to pick up the same dirty uniform every day, and yet, every time I see you, you always look cool."

"It's how I express myself, I guess." Sal shrugged, though he seemed happier to be within this area of conversation. "My mom used to say I have a 'creative spirit'-" He used air quotes, which made both of them chuckle. "Whatever the hell that means. But I'm a shitty artist and I haven't played guitar in years, so this is how I embody that, I guess." Sal lay back against the windscreen, taking a long, deliberate suck from his straw before tucking his hands underneath his head and sighing happily. "Plus, girls have better clothes anyway."

"Fair enough." Larry said with a nod in agreement, lying back with him. “I’m not brave enough to do that kinda thing. Kudos, my man.”

“Honestly? Sometimes it’s kind of my way of getting back at my dad too.” He continued. “I mean, don't get me wrong, he's great and I love him, obviously, but he drinks a lot and he wasn’t really there that much when I was a kid. Left my mom to do the kid raising shit to get drunk with his friends.” He turned onto his side to face Larry properly. “So now he is around more, I guess I wanna keep him on his toes. Make sure he’s always got my back, no matter what I throw at him, ya know? And kudos to the guy, he's never had an issue with it. I'm really lucky.”

“Woah. That’s heavy, man.” Larry said, blinking slowly. “Like, I totally get it, but still.”

“Yeah.” Sal replied with a little laugh. “It’s kinda nice though. Funny too. I think he was so glad that my first boyfriend was a total norm that he didn’t even care about me being gay.”

It took every ounce of control for Larry to not let out a sigh of relief at Sal’s admission. He had an inkling, of course, but one really couldn’t assume in this day and age. Too many times had Larry crushed on a supposedly bi-curious, twinky goth guy over MySpace to find out they were straight as a board. Thank the fucking gay gods.

“That’s cool.” Larry said with a _slightly_ relieved smile (not too obvious!). “And your dad sounds like a cool guy. Would love to see him round the store at some point.”

“Maybe you’ll see him one day.” Sal closed his eyes and sighed peacefully, tipping his head up to the sky. “This was super nice, dude, thank you. It’s so peaceful out here.”

If the moment was a scene in a movie or a page in a romantic novel, Larry would have lept on Sal and kissed him. Underneath the lights of the gas station and on the dashboard of his beloved Roadkill, it couldn't have been a more perfect setting for a dramatic admission of love. Then they probably would have driven off to have crazy awesome, passionate sex, fallen in love, gotten married and had swarms of adorable, adopted babies.

But it wasn't a scene in a movie. And Larry didn't have the courage to even try and kiss the younger boy. So he just smiled and stared at him in comfortable silence, enjoying his company and enjoying just how perfect that night at the Nockfell Snappy Snack Shack was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaa so i'm terrible at keeping to an upload schedule, especially when i'm working and studying and doing adult things but i'm still writing this! i promise! i love this fic too much to just let it die
> 
> anyway this chapter doesn't have a lot of reason to it but i wanted to write a cute moment for these two to like *CONNECT* ya feel me? also introducing some themes that will be used in later chapters ooooo very spooky potentially! maybe! i have plans for where i want this fic to go, i promise i'm not just writing recaps at my shift at my own video store
> 
> like, comment, bookmark and such! it fuels my desire to write!  
> iloveyousallyface.tumblr.com


End file.
